Before the draft – for at least some of the conversation, when the names don't really change but the dearth of actual real news hits a lull and all that can be done is speculate, often wildly – there was some debate about who the top wide receiver was available.

Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze had their backers. Marvin Harrison Jr. won over the majority of the pundits.

Odunze comes to town Sunday with the Bears, just as Harrison comes off his best game. Nabers had a hot start but a concussion derailed his season for a bit. Odunze has a 100-yard game, but he hasn't been impactful in an offense with Keenan Allen, D.J. Moore and tight end Cole Kmet out there. (He had one catch last week.)

It did feel like Harrison breathed a sigh of relief postgame in Miami, with how well he played in the Cardinals' win. Harrison insisted he didn't do anything different to create his 6-111-1 stat line and emphasized his teammates have a lot to do with it when he succeeds.

But he knows he needs consistency too. "The best players show it week in and week out," he said.

For all the consideration of what Harrison has done, he is the first Cardinals rookie with multiple 100-yard receiving games since Anquan Boldin did it in 2003. (Larry Fitzgerald did not have a 100-yard game as a rookie in 2004.)

"I just think I'm playing faster," Harrison said. "I'm making decisions faster. I'm reading the defense. That's part of my progression as well, knowing what the defense is going to do."

Speaking of Fitzgerald – and another great wide receiver that you have perhaps heard of, Jerry Rice – a look at their rookie seasons to give some perspective on Harrison's. Again, Fitz did have games of 94, 92 and 92 yards as a rookie but no triple digits. He also had 58 catches on 115 targets.

Rice had two games without a catch as a rookie, and a few years ago, even reflected on how hard it was for him as a rookie.

"When I first came in, I said, 'I'm gonna catch everything from Joe Montana. Everything Montana throws me I'm gonna catch it. I got to win his confidence over,'" Rice said. "I was catching everything at practice but then during ball games and during preseason, I was dropping everything. I remember getting booed. I remember the media getting so down on me and saying, 'Hey, look how can you go draft this guy out of Mississippi Valley State University from a small school like that and he's dropping footballs? It's just no way. He's gonna be a bust.'"

Narrator: Rice was not a bust.

THROUGH FIRST EIGHT GAMES, NFL CAREER

-- Budda Baker showed up to his press conference on Thursday – Halloween – decked out in a Michael Myers-esque costume. Fitting, really, given how scary he has been to opponents. (Forgive me for the low-hanging fruit of the analogy.) He's playing excellent football and was dominant in Miami, although Baker said "I honestly feel like that every game."

"Things you are seeing right now are just me running to the ball," he added. "That's what I can give to the team. Motor and violence."

Despite the trade deadline approaching, Baker – who had said earlier he didn't expect to go anywhere as he heads towards the end of his contract after the season – is a key to what the Cardinals do the rest of the season. GM Monti Ossenfort also emphasized that on Friday's appearance on Arizona's Sports.

"Budda is a big part of not only on the field, but off the field with the leadership he provides," he said.

-- There will be a food drive prior to the game Sunday. Volunteers from United Food Bank along with Cardinals cheerleaders and Big Red will collect non perishable food items (and/or donations) at 14 collection points, including all five gates.

-- Out of eight games, the Cardinals have trailed in the fourth quarter in seven of them, tied for most in the NFL. They have won three of those games, which is the most in the NFL.

-- Bears injuries to watch: They are down to their third-string left tackle. And stud pass rusher Montez Sweat is questionable and went from limited on Thursday to DNP on Friday.

-- Don't forget the rest of the country changes their clocks Saturday night, so all the kickoff times relative to Arizona are pushed ahead an hour. The early games around the league are now going to be 11 a.m. The kickoff for the Bears game will be 2:05 p.m. (which, personally, I prefer being on Pacific time. Ah well.)

-- In pass plays of extended time – four seconds or more to throw – Kyler Murray leads the NFL with four TD passes (no picks) and a 116.5 passer rating.

-- Back to Harrison for a moment. College/current teammate Paris Johnson Jr. has had a celebration dating back to their Ohio State days when Harrison scores a touchdown. Harrison leaps into PJJ's arms and the tackle lifts him up. But in Miami after Harrison's electric TD catch, it wasn't all that smooth.

"I did not help him at all on that jump," Harrison admitted.

"He did run across the field (for the touchdown), probably was a little tired, but I'm going to need more effort because he wanted me to straight press him in the air, which I was not ready for," Johnson said. "Usually he does most of the work and I kind of just guide my hands up. That time he wanted me to fully lift him. I know next time to be prepared."

-- With only one more game after the Bears before the bye, I wouldn't be shocked if Darius Robinson's return would come after that. I know people are anxious to see Robinson in games, but the kid has to practice first, and practice more than a little. Don't know if he had a setback but I wouldn't be surprised given the timeline of how this has all happened, and while his length of absence has been unfortunate, it's the beginning of his career. The Cardinals need to look at this long-term.

-- The Bears are making only their fourth visit to Arizona this century. The time before that, 1998, was the last time the Cardinals beat the Bears in the desert. There was, of course, the Monday Night Meltdown in 2006, there was a non-descript loss late in 2012 as the quarterback woes torpedoed the end of Ken Whisenhunt's time, and then there was 2018, when Sam Bradford played his last NFL snap and the Josh Rosen era was ushered in.

-- The league's oldest rivalry, by the way, began with the Cardinals and Bears first meeting on Nov. 28, 1920. That was the NFL's first season.

-- The last word belongs to Kyler Murray, and the importance of the second half of the season.

"November, December football – if you really understand what it means to win, those are the months where it really gets real. Those are the months that matter the most. We've won early in the year (before) and come down to it, and we weren't successful in those months. We have to lock in these next couple months."

See you Sunday.